ELDRIDGE Cleaver’s Soul on Ice couldn’t have been about the Rangers. They don’t have one.

Maybe they sold it for pieces of gold. Maybe they lost it by rolling over on Tom Renney, both before and after he was fired, but it’s clear while watching them fail for a second coach that this team has no definable spirit; has no soul.

There’s less here than meets the eye. There’s less urgency than required; less commitment. Forget that there is no center to actually make a play, there is no center to hold. There is no identity, no matter how hard John Tortorella attempts to stamp his own on this stoic group.

If the Rangers believe they played with the passion required in Saturday’s 1-0 defeat in Boston, they are fooling themselves now just as they fooled themselves by blaming Renney for their deficiencies the first half of the year, and just as they fooled themselves by blaming Jaromir Jagr for anything that went wrong last year.

It is instructive, is it not, that every player and every aspect of the game that was supposedly adversely affected by Jagr is demonstrably inferior this season?

Here’s the thing about money. When a player submits that he is worth $5M per, or $6.5M per, or $6.875M per, or $7.05M per, or $7.357M per, that athlete has the obligation to be at his best. That athlete has the obligation to play well.

Other than Henrik Lundqvist, who has had a very good season but has been unable to elevate his game down the stretch, there isn’t a big-money player here who has even come close to meeting that obligation.

Excuse me, but Milan Lucic sticks out his leg and injures a defenseless Nik Antropov by going knee-on-knee midway through the second period on Saturday, and it’s Sean Avery who should be suspended for kind of stupidly using his stick to tap Tim Thomas on the back of his helmet during a TV timeout?

The absence of context is the crux of the issue here, just as always. Headhunters such as Chris Pronger and Gary Roberts, who historically injure opponents, are routinely deified, notably by the sanctimonious brigade north of the border, but Avery, who has never hurt anyone but himself, must be banned for the good of the sport?

Avery has been a better pure player this time around than he was in his first Broadway run, but he hasn’t had quite the same impact. That’s because he’s trying to figure out how far he can go without being hauled in for a strip-search.

Easier said than done, but so long as Avery has the support of Tortorella and GM Glen Sather, he has to determine how close he can get to the edge of the cliff without falling off. That’s where he has to go shift after shift, and why should the Rangers care what anyone else thinks?

Finally, this about money: It isn’t merely playoff revenue at stake now for ownership with three games to go and the Rangers leading the Panthers by only the victory tiebreaker, it’s eighth place as the justification for raising ticket prices next season that is at risk. Is there any doubt?